What Emerging-Market Pioneer Mark Mobius Would Do With $100,000

(Bloomberg) -- Wondering where Mark Mobius would invest $100,000 right now?

A third in commodities, a third in African stocks and a third in Vietnam -- that was the pioneering emerging-market investor’s response to a question at a Q&A session at Bloomberg’s Year Ahead Asia conference in Jakarta.

Palladium, which has rallied 45 percent this year, and platinum are the “most notable” commodities and are attractive given that they’re used in catalytic converters in automobile engines, said Mobius, the executive chairman of Franklin Templeton’s emerging markets group.

In Africa, Mobius said he was keen on stocks from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. It’s a “great opportunity” to invest in Zimbabwe right now as he expects the market to be opened up and foreign-exchange reserves to rise after the toppling of former president Robert Mugabe.

Mobius described Vietnam, where the benchmark VN Index has climbed 41 percent this year, as “one of the most dynamic” Asian markets. “It’s a small market, a frontier market, but it’s exciting,” he said in a separate interview at the conference.

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